Quote Originally Posted by desslock
Hey-

Well I would hope they don't settle or plea the 2257 charge, but litigate it.

Steve

There are a lot of counts on the indictment, and more than likely the defendants will be offered a deal where they plead to 1 or 2 charges and the others will be dropped. Defendants don't get to choose to go to trial on some charges and plead the others--they get packaged offers that are usually take it or leave it.
When I was prosecuting I filed all the legitimate charges that could be filed and then I would have a lot of bargaining power to get a guilty plea on the most important charges. That is just the way the system works--more than 95% of all indictments result in a guilty plea. If everybody demanded a trial, the justice system would grind to a halt because there is not enough courtroom space or courtroom time for all those jury trials. A typical guilty plea and sentencing can be done in under 30 minutes with 1 judge, 1 prosecutor, a court reporter, defense lawyer and bailiff. A jury trial needs all those people, plus a jury pool of 20-40 people, a clerk, and 12 to 16 hours of courtroom time. Consider that when 3% to 5% of cases are going to trial and the system is overloaded, what would happen if even 20% of cases demanded a trial.
If we were still in 2003 before new 2257 regs were first introduced, I would say that the 2257 was a throw-away charge that would be dismissed as part of a plea bargain. However, today there is more pressure to show that 2257 is being enforced, so I would bet that a guilty plea to a 2257 charge would be part of any plea agreeement offered to the defendants.